SIGNAL cHAIN
deaN farLey
Happy Accidents: Musical Feedback
How’s everyone doing? Since I’ve been
revisiting The Beatles’ recorded catalog in
mono, I thought that this might be great
time to discuss musical inventions that come
to us as “happy accidents.” It was on their
song “I Feel Fine” that feedback from an
electric guitar was first used in a musical way
on record. That particular decade from 1956
to 1966 gave us notable recorded musical
examples that you can use as a springboard
to come up with ideas for using feedback
effects in your own music.
It was also back in the mid-1950s when the
original version of “The Train Kept A Rollin’”
was recorded by Johnny Burnette and the
Rock ‘n Roll Trio. This was the record where
the Trio’s guitarist, Paul Burlison, discovered
a more distorted tone from a very unforeseen
source. Somehow (due to some heavy
vibration), Burlison’s Fender amplifier had an
output tube come loose from its socket, and
this created the dirtier guitar sound he heard
as a result … quite by accident. Of course,
these were the early days of rock ‘n’ roll, so
neat things were being discovered in the
then new genre of music. However, it seems
that capturing feedback on record first began
emanating from the British Isles and the
amplifiers being made there at the time.
1965–1966 were really big years for
feedback. In addition to the Beatles song
mentioned above, feedback also was
heard on the Who’s “My Generation,” the
guitar solo section of The Yardbirds’ “Lost
Woman” and on the intro section of The
Jimi Hendrix Experience’s “Foxy Lady,” to
name just a few. But there was even more to
come. Just before Peter Green put together
Fleetwood Mac, he was playing with John
Mayall’s Bluesbreakers on the record A
Hard Road and captured some of the most
incredibly divine feedback to ever grace
a vinyl record—on the track named “The
Supernatural.” I still think that it was Green
who spurred Carlos Santana on to hit those
long, creamy sustained notes. It’s been said
that “The Supernatural,” and most of A Hard
Road, was recorded with a Marshall amp,
which apparently was not Green’s amplifier of
choice. Most of the time he was seen playing
through blackface Fender heads with 2x12
Fender extension cabinets, or early Matamps.
Perhaps the use of the Marshall amplifier in
the studio with Mayall accidentally gave him
that particularly wonderful feedback effect
during that session?
Last month, Buddy Guy told us the story
about how a G-string that was accidentally
brushed by a woman’s dress passing by
his guitar while it was leaning against his
amplifier started his whole idea about using
that feedback effect. Jimi Hendrix and Eric
Clapton have both claimed the influence of
Buddy Guy from their days of listening to
American blues records.
It seems that capturing
feedback on record first
began emanating from
the British Isles and the
amplifiers being made
there at the time.
Here are some things you can do to make
feedback a useful musical tool. The first is
to find the spot in relation to your guitar
amp’s speakers that aids in the production of
feedback. You need to stand in the line of fire
to get the most bang for the note! Volume
is the second component needed to get the
results you want. It has to be loud enough to
create that sympathetic sustain. Think of this
as a loop. There are a couple other things
that you can do to help yourself find these
great effects. I’ve found the use of a decent
delay pedal in combination with the judicious
use of a whammy bar really helps things get
going! What happens when you hit a chord
(or a note) that’s delayed is that the notes will
“collide” with the others ringing out as you
bring them back together. There are other
ways of doing this if your guitar doesn’t have
a whammy bar installed on it. You’ll need to
use your fingers and wrist motion to excite the
strings long enough to create that feedback.
In the late 1990s, I had a trio that did some
covers and mostly original material. One
day I picked up my effects rack too quickly
(and in the wrong way) and I felt a tendon
stretch a bit too far. Every time I tried to
bend a string, it really hurt. I could feel
that tendon scraping over another bone
right below my wrist in line with my thumb.
Needless to say I went to the doctor and
the diagnosis was swift: I had De Quervain’s
Tenosynovitus. They wasted no time putting
my playing arm in a big cast that was very
metallic and really uncomfortable. The thing
was, we had booked two back-to-back
gigs! That same night of the doctor’s visit
we had a band rehearsal, so I attempted
to play with this huge barrier surrounding
my left arm. I couldn’t really play, but I
sure found out that night I could make a
hell of a lot of noise. I was so frustrated
having to deal with that cast that I went
crazy and started to bang my Stratocaster’s
headstock repeatedly into the side of my
speaker cabinets! I have to say that some
of the coolest sounds I found, feedback-wise, were discovered then and there. I still
don’t know to this day how I managed to
get through those two gigs in that cast, but
somehow I did. I think Jimi and Dick Dale
might have been proud of my discoveries.
I suggest you listen to bands such as
Sonic Youth or The Mermen, as a couple
of modern examples of how others use
feedback. Lastly, be sure to check out
everything that Jimi Hendrix recorded
live, along with the songs listed above.
Remember that the more you listen, the
more creative ideas will come to you at the
most musically appropriate time (even if you
find yourself in a diminished capacity). The
sky’s the limit! See you next month.
Dean Farley
is the chief designer of "Snake Oil Brand Strings"
( sobstrings.net) and has had a profound influence
on the trends in the strings of today.
